No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Select documents XXXVII: The campaign against the Scots in Munster, 1317
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
Extract
The document printed below has been preserved, somewhat unexpectedly among the series of Ministers’ Accounts in the Public Record Office, London. It is the account (or, more strictly. a record belonging to the process of auditing the account) of John Patrickschurch, clerk of wages on the expedition that Edmund Butler, the justiciar of Ireland, led in Munister between February and April 1317 against Robert and Edward Bruce and their Scottish army. The broad course of events during that critical period is well known. The Scots came south during February, approached Dublin, but, lacking the capacity to take it, continued south and west, ravaging the famine-stricken countryside. They eventually arrived at Castleconnell, by the Shannon just north of Limerick, apparently in the hope of benefiting from an alliance with the O'Briens of Thomond, one faction among whom had been in touch with them in Ulster The justiciar had moved south before the Bruces reached Dublin. He raised an army in Munster and proceeded to follow the Scots closely as they progressed through Tipperary. The royal army eventually encamped at Ludden, just south of Limerick. For some days the two forces confronted each other. Then Robert and Edward retreated. Their expectations of the O'Briens had proved vain; they were desperately short of supplies; and they may well have heard of the arrival of Roger Mortimer, the king's lieutenant, who had landed at Youghal, from where he set out on 11 April to join Butler and the army The document is of some interest for the light it can shed on military organisation and on the accounting procedures of the Irish exchequer But it is worth printing in full above all for the detailed information it contains about one of the darkest yet most decisive episodes of the Bruce invasion.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1985
References
1 I am grateful to Dr Philomena Connolly of the Public Record Office of Ireland, who guided me on questions of exchequer practice, and to Canon C A. Empey. who helped me with the identification of placenames.
2 See Orpen, , Normans, iv. 189–93Google Scholar; Otway-Ruthven, , Med. Ire., pp 230–31Google Scholar; Frame, Robin, ‘The Bruces in Ireland, 1315–18’ in I.H.S., xix, no. 73 (Mar. 1974), pp 22–4, 34–6Google Scholar.
3 Chartul. St Mary's. Dublin, ii, 300–1Google Scholar.
4 P.R.O , E. 101/237/5.
5 P.R.O , F 372/166, m.25.
6 Cal pat. rolls. 1317–21. p. 269.
7 See Richardson, & Sayles, , Admin. Ire., pp 3–4, 47–8, 106, 126Google Scholar, and Lydon, J. F., ‘The enrolled account of Alexander Bicknor, treasurer of Ireland, 1308–14’ in Anal. Hib., no. 30 (1982), pp 10–11 Google Scholar. The political background is touched upon in Frame, Robin, English lordship in Ireland. 1318–1361 (Oxford, 1982), p. 169 Google Scholar.
8 Cal. pat. rolls. 1324–7. p. 197; Cal close rolls. 1323–7. p. 432. He appears to have gone to England, leaving Roger Outlaw as his deputy, before this ( Richardson, & Sayles, , Admin. Ire., p. 101 Google Scholar).
9 He was pardoned, in return for a fine of 500 marks, as early as March 1326; the pardon was confirmed by Edward III in 1334. His rehabilitation can be followed in Cal. pat. rolls. 1324–7. pp 250–51; Cal. memoranda rolls. 1326–7. nos 1013, 1662, 2108–9; Cal. pat. rolls. 1334–8. p. 32.
10 E.g. Cal. memoranda rolls, 1326–7. nos 771 (c), 772, 779, 782, 1111, 1305, 1829, 2062, 2064, 2153; Cal. close rolls. 1327–30. pp 174, 196, 197, 260.
11 The writ seeking information from the Dublin exchequer, the Kilkenny account, and Patrickschurch's account are all together in P.R.O., S.C. 6/1239/13. S.C. 6 is an artificial collection assembled from various sources: see H. C. Maxwell-Lyte's preface of 1894 to the List of original ministers accounts, i, reprinted as P.R.O. lists and indexes, v (New York. 1963)Google Scholar.
12 Assignments of a further 200 marks were at some stage made to Butler and not to Patrickschurch; Edmund received 50 marks of this amount from the revenues of County Limerick (P.R.O.I., R.C. 8/12, pp 650–51).
13 See Lydon, J. F, ‘Survey of the memoranda rolls of the Irish exchequer, 1294–1509’ in Anal. Hib., no. 23 (1966). pp 53–4, 65Google Scholar.
14 See Connolly, Philomena, ‘An account of military expenditure in Leinster, 1308’ in ibid., no. 30 (1982), p. 3 Google Scholar.
15 Except where otherwise indicated, all further references to these annals are taken from Chartul. St Mary's. Dublin, ii, 300–1. (It should be noted that the dates supplied in the margins of the Dublin annals by their nineteenth-century editor are not always to be relied upon.) The sources for most other statements relating to the 1317 campaign in the paragraphs that follow are set out in Frame, , ‘The Bruces in Ireland’, pp 34–6Google Scholar. For a map of the Scots’ likely route, see McNeill, P. and Nicholson, R. (eds), An historical atlas of Scotland. c.400–c.1600 (St Andrews, 1975), p. 169, map 61Google Scholar.
16 Frame, , ‘The Bruces in Ireland’, p. 26 Google Scholar. Edmund had been in Dublin in mid-January (P.R.O.I., K.B. 2/8, pp 44, 49).
17 Contracts of the mid-fourteenth century show the Butlers making arrangements with local Irish and Anglo-Irish lords binding them to military service gratis if they were able to return home at night and at the Butlers’ expense if they had to go further afield (e.g. Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, nos 33, 36–7. 39).
18 The Dublin annalist tells us that on 27 March news reached Dublin that the Scots were at Kells in Ossory and the magnates of Ireland (among whom the annalist usually counts the justiciar) at Kilkenny. This finds no direct support in the account. If the annalist was not misinformed, he must be referring to an event some time before 27 March; conceivably Butler had visited Kilkenny during this gap in the account between 10 and 15 March, when the Scots were indeed in the area of Callan and Kells.
19 Ann. Inisf., 1317.3; Caithr Thoirdh., ii, 117
20 Hand, Eng. law in Ireland, p. 231, has Butler holding pleas at Cashel on Friday. 8 April and then at Brittas on Monday, 11 April. The account has him at Brittas on 11 April, but at Caherconlish on 8 April. The session at Cashel in fact occurred on the following Friday, 15 April (that is, the Friday after the close of Easter); the confusion has arisen because the membranes of the roll of the justiciar's court are out of chronological order at this point (P.R.O.I., K.B. 2/8, pp 60, 65; P.R.O.I., M. 2750, p. 12).
21 Chartul. St Mary's. Dublin, ii, 353; Annals of Friar John Clyn. ed. Richard Butler (Dublin, 1849), p.13 Ann. Inisf., 1317.3, say that the Scots intended to join the Irish of Thomond at Singland near Limerick, and portray them as moving to ‘Grunna’ (? Monbraher). Caithr Thoirdh., ii, 117, fancifully, says that the Anglo-Irish lords had placed Murrough O'Brien (the enemy of Clan Brian Rua who were supporting the Bruces) in charge of the army, and intended a battle to be fought at Singland. King Robert is then made to retreat from Singland, by implication out of fear of Murrough and Richard de Clare.
22 See above, n. 12.
23 Cf. Frame, Robin, ‘English officials and Irish chiefs in the fourteenth century’ in E.H.R., xc (1975), p. 758 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
page 368 note 1 Interiineated in MS.
page 368 note 2 Outlaw was deputy treasurer during Walter Islip's absence in England in the winter of 1317–18 ( Richardson, & Sayles, , Admin. Ire., p. 100 Google Scholar).
page 368 note 3 Ludden, S.E. of Limerick, near Caherconlish, of which it was held (Red Bk Ormond, p. 156).
page 368 note 4 This and the other headings are marginated in MS. Towards the beginning the MS has been cut away and certain letters are lost.
page 368 note 5 Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary; granted to Edmund Butler by Edward II in 1315 (Cal. chart, rolls. 1300–26. pp 284–5).
page 368 note 6 Interlineated in MS.
page 368 note 7 Co. Waterford.
page 368 note 8 Maurice fitz Thomas, created earl of Desmond in 1329, was lord of Dungarvan.
page 369 note 9 Tallow, now Co. Waterford, S.W. of Lismore; the justiciar's court sat there in 1295 (Cal. justic. rolls. Ire., 1295–1303. pp 15, 71).
page 369 note 10 Affane, Co. Waterford, E. of Lismore.
page 369 note 11 Rathgormac, Co. Waterford, S. of Carrick-on-Suir. In ‘The Bruces in Ireland’ (p. 35), I confused it with Rathcormack, Co. Cork.
page 369 note 12 John son of Benedict le Poer, lord of Rathgormac, was killed in 1328 (Annals of Friar John Clyn. p. 19).
page 369 note l3 Ardmayle.Co.Tipperary, N W of Cashel; a Butler manor (Ormond deeds, 1172–1350. no. 99; Red Bk Ormond. pp 62–4).
page 369 note 14 Co. Tipperary; caput of a Butler manor (Red Bk Ormond, p. 69)
page 369 note 15 Here the force seems to have been re-employed after a spell out of pay.
page 369 note 16 Brother of Edmund Butler Thomas, traditionally reckoned first lord Dunboyne, was killed defending his wife's interests in Meath in 1329 (Chartul. St Mary's, Dublin, ii, 370–71).
page 369 note 17 Or ‘Leynnan’: Newtownlennan, Co. Tipperary, N of Carrick-on-Suir, of which it was held (Red Bk Ormond. p. 121).
page 369 note 18 Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
page 369 note 19 Cashel, Co. Tipperary.
page 370 note 20 Presumably the army went out of pay on 18–19 March, apart from the household force supported by the justiciar's annual fee of £500.
page 370 note 21 Probably Daire mór, N.E of Cashel, which was held of the see of Cashel: Ormond deeds, 1172–1350, no. 414; Aubrey Gwynn and R. N. Hadcock, Medieval religious houses. Ireland (London, 1970), p. 33.
page 370 note 22 Probably Fennor, Co. Tipperary; close to Daire mór. towards Urlingford.
page 370 note 23 MS sic: but the dates given and the wages paid show that the numeral should be ‘iiij’
page 370 note 24 Graystown, Co. Tipperary: N.E. of Cashel, towards Killenaule (Red Bk Ormond. pp 94, 97).
page 370 note 25 Athassel. Co. Tipperary; S.W. of Cashel.
page 370 note 26 Probably the tenementum Oliveri Haket. cantred of Okonach, Co. Tipperary, mentioned in thirteenth-century charters; it may possibly represent Cordangan, just south of Tipperary town (Reg. St John. Dublin, nos 547–9). I owe this note to Canon C. A. Empey.
page 370 note 27 Unidentified. Canon Empey has suggested to me that ‘Craak’ may be a corruption of ‘Cradok’ A Henry Cradok appears as a juror in the cantred of Grean, Co. Limerick in 1331 (Red Bk Kildare. no. 133); the route of the army lay through Grean.
page 371 note 28 Rathjordan, W. of Pallas Grean, Co. limerick; held of Caherconlish (Red Bk Ormond, p. 156).
page 371 note 29 Caherconlish. Co. Limerick; a Butler manor (Red Hk Ormond. pp 154–8).
page 371 note 30 Caherelly, Co. Limerick, S. of Caherconlish, of which it was held (Red Hk Ormond. p. 155).
page 371 note 31 Brittas, Co. Limerick N. E. of Caherconlish and also held of it (Red Hk Ormond. p. 157).
page 371 note 32 Unidentified. It must lie between Brittas and C ashel, perhaps in the region of Donohill or Tipperary town.
page 371 note 33 Omitted in MS
page 371 note 34 Repeated in error in MS.
page 371 note 35 Unidentified. Probably ‘dermor’ again stands for Daire mór (above, n. 21). Could the name represent ‘the causeway of Daire mór’?.
page 371 note 36 Omitted in MS.
page 371 note 37 The bog of Eliogarty, N of Cashel.
page 371 note 38 MS sic.
page 372 note 39 Treasurer of England. 1332–4
page 372 note 40 Crown copyright material appears by permission of the comptroller of H.M. Stationery Office.